Answering confucius: The reason why we complicate

Bernardo Pereira Nunes, Stella Pedrosa, Ricardo Kawase, Mohammad Alrifai, Ivana Marenzi, Stefan Dietze, Marco Antonio Casanova

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

Learning is a level-progressing process. In any field of study, one must master basic concepts to understand more complex ones. Thus, it is important that during the learning process learners are presented and challenged with knowledge which they are able to comprehend (not a level below, not a level too high). In this work we focus on language learners. By gradually improving (complicating) texts, readers are challenged to learn new vocabulary. To achieve such goals, in this paper we propose and evaluate the 'complicator' that translates given sentences to a chosen level of higher degree of difficulty. The 'complicator' is based on natural language processing and information retrieval approaches that perform lexical replacements. 30 native English speakers participated in a user study evaluating our methods on an expert-tailored dataset of children books. Results show that our tool can be of great utility for language learners who are willing to improve their vocabulary.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationScaling Up Learning for Sustained Impact - 8th European Conference on Technology Enhanced Learning, EC-TEL 2013, Proceedings
Pages496-501
Number of pages6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2013
Externally publishedYes
Event8th European Conference on Technology Enhanced Learning, EC-TEL 2013 - Paphos, Cyprus
Duration: 17 Sept 201321 Sept 2013

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume8095 LNCS
ISSN (Print)0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)1611-3349

Conference

Conference8th European Conference on Technology Enhanced Learning, EC-TEL 2013
Country/TerritoryCyprus
CityPaphos
Period17/09/1321/09/13

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